A Rake's Progress
On the wall of Dr. Shawna Welsh's office at the Laurier Mental Health Clinic is a large framed reproduction of one of the pictures in a series called A Rake's Progress, painted by William Hogarth in the eighteenth century. In the episode "Crazy Love", Dr. Welsh is evaluating the mental health of Peter Barlow, a serial killer who has been sent to the Laurier Clinic for evaluation. However, he manages to escape, killing a patient as he leaves the grounds. Det. Nick Knight goes to Dr. Welsh's office to interview her about Barlow. When he enters, she isn't yet there, so he spends a few moments looking around—particularly at a large framed picture hanging on the wall. Dr. Welsh, a psychiatrist dealing with the mentally ill in twentieth-century Toronto, has chosen to hang on the wall of her office a picture of an eighteenth-century insane asylum. It is the location depicted in the eighth (and final) painting in a series by James Hogarth. Hogarth's A Rake's Progress A Rake's Progress is a series of eight pictures by the English artist William Hogarth (1697-1764). They were first painted on canvas in 1732–33; then, in 1735, they were engraved and published as prints. The series shows the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison, where he goes mad and is ultimately sent to Bethelehem Hospital (better known by the contracted version of its name, "Bedlam"}. The original paintings are currently in the collection of the Soane Museum in London. The series of paintings depicts the following: * Tom comes into his money. * He is at a morning levée in London, attended by musicians and hangers-on. * He is attending an orgy at a brothel. * He narrowly escapes being arrested for debt. * He marries an ugly old woman for her money. * He goes to a gambling den. * He is in debtor's prison. * He is locked in an insane asylum. This reflects the view of the time that madness was a result of moral weakness. Bethelehem Hospital The building that originally housed the insane asylum "Bedlam" was once a priory for the Order of the Star of Bethlehem, opened in 1247, and located in Bishopsgate Street in London (where Liverpool Street station now stands). In 1330 it became a hospital; and it admitted some mentally ill patients from 1357, later becoming a dedicated psychiatric hospital. Today, it is recognized as the world's first and oldest institution to specialize in the mentally ill. The name "Bedlam" is a contraction of the word "Bethlehem". The "care" offered to inmates amounted to little more than restraint: violent or dangerous patients were manacled and chained to the floor or wall. The physical conditions were appalling; and, in 1675, Bedlam moved to new buildings outside the City boundary. The lunatics were first called "patients" in 1700, and "curable" and "incurable" wards were opened in 1725-34. However, treatment remained essentially unchanged. In the eighteenth century people used to go to Bedlam to stare at the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells and laugh at their "antics" (generally meaning either fights or public sexual activity). Visitors were permitted to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the inmates. It is Bethlehem Hospital at this period which is portrayed in A Rake's Progress. In 1815, Bedlam was moved to St George's Fields, Southwark (into buildings now used to house the Imperial War Museum), where the inmates were referred to as "unfortunates". Finally, in 1930, the hospital was moved to an outer suburb of London, on the site of Monks Orchard House between Eden Park, Beckenham and Shirley. Today, Bethlem Royal Hospital is run as a modern psychiatric hospital. The word "bedlam" (i.e. uproar and confusion), is derived from the name of the insane asylum. ::Adapted from the Wikipedia articles on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rake's_Progress A Rake's Progress] and Bethlem Royal Hospital, and the BBC page on Bedlam - The Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem. Rake's Progress Rake's Progress